Wayne Knupp and Devourment | The Game Changers in Slamming Brutal Death Metal

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Wayne Knupp, a vocalist for one of my favorite albums of all times (can’t say the album), and the most influential [first] slamming brutal death metal album of all times (again, can’t say the album), by Texan slam pioneers Devourment, took the underground brutal death metal scene by storm. The slam riff (discussed in my previous articles), has been around since 1991 when it was first introduced by Suffocation in the song “Liege of Inveracity” of their album Effigy of the Forgotten (check my other article), but there were very few bands that would use this style of riff for the entire album. This riff was extremely popular in the Long Island and Upstate New York metal scene, with bands such as Dehumanized, Afterbirth, Pyrexia, Repudilation, and Internal Bleeding (probably the creators first true slamming brutal death metal album, but it is debated quite a bit), but still, none of these bands were considered as brutal as Devourment.

Let’s not get too far off topic; what made Devourment stand apart from these Long Island brutal death metallers was the new vocal style invented by Wayne Knupp. Obviously, when thinking of singing (and gutturals), you would think to exhale; Knupp inhaled. This technique is extremely difficult to pull off and hard to continue to do over a long band performance, but if perfected, this throaty, watery, disgusting (drain pipe) guttural makes the music so much heavier (similar to the goregrind vocals without all the stupid special effects for untalented posers). Modern slamming brutal death metal bands use this type of vocal all the time with tons of bands I can’t name. Wayne Knupp died on September 15th, 2007 because of multiple organ failure due to alcohol abuse (…). Knupp will not go forgotten, because when a true slam fan is asked who Wayne Knupp is, they’ll always know, which speaks to the impact he has left on many listeners. Devourment’s album I can’t name is considered one of the heaviest, if not the heaviest album of all times (90’s production quality helps as well), and now it’s time to blast it. Stay metal \m/